Wow, what a bunch of heart breaks and blow outs this first round, huh? Hayao’s Spirited Away steamrolls over his son Goro’s first feature Tales From Eathsea. Princess Mononoke beat out the equally matched and favored Nausicaa. Pom Poko was no match for Ghibli poster boy Totoro and my dear lord did Porco Rosso get smoked like a pound of bacon by Castle in the Sky. Even my favorite Howl’s Moving Castle was knocked out by Grave of the Fireflies (you can see the rest of the results in the image below). But that’s how it goes…two men enter, one man leave right?
So here I present the updated official “Miyazaki Madness” bracket as we move into the Elite 8 bracket of the tournament. Voting will stay open for 1 week. Cast your votes and comment at the bottom. Don’t forget we are offering prizes for your participation!
Click the image above for a hi-rez version of the bracket and start voting after the jump…
————————————————————————————————————————————
| Spirited Away (2001) – defeated Tales From Earthsea last round | Princess Mononoke (1997) – defeated Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind last round |
| Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki | Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki |
| Summary: In the middle of her family’s move to the suburbs, Chihiro, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a magical world where a witch rules — and those who disobey her are turned into animals. When Chihiro’s parents become pigs, she must find a way to help them return to their human form. | Summary: In this anime epic from director Hayao Miyazaki, Prince Ashitaka is infected with a lethal curse, and must travel to find a cure. On his journey, he discovers himself caught in a battle between a mining town and the animals of the surrounding forest. A girl raised by wolves leads the animals, but the forest harbors deadly supernatural powers. |
|
Scenes to watch for: – Sen tending to the stink spirit – The paper birds following Haku |
Scenes to watch for: – San attacks Lady Eboshi – Rescuing the Spirit of the Forest |
| IMDb score: 8.6/10 G-S-T score: 4.0/4.0 | IMDb score: 8.4/10 G-S-T score: 3.25/4.0 |
[poll id=”12″]
————————————————————————————————————————————
| My Neignbor Totoro (1988) – defeated Pom Poko last round | Castle in the Sky (1986) – defeated Porco Rosso last round |
| Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki | Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki |
| Summary: When two girls move to the country to be near their ailing mother, they have adventures with the wonderous forest spirits who live nearby. | Summary: A young boy and a girl with a magic crystal must race against pirates and foreign agents in a search for a legendary floating castle. |
|
Scenes to watch for: – Finding Totoro for the first time – The cat bus helping Mei and Satsuki to the hospital |
Scenes to watch for: – Rescuing Sheeta from the general’s fortress – Arrival at Laputa/unlocking the secrets of the castle |
| IMDb score: 8.2/10 G-S-T score: 2.5/4.0 | IMDb score: 8.1/10 G-S-T score: 3.75/4.0 |
[poll id=”15″]
————————————————————————————————————————————
| The Cat Returns (2002) – defeated Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro last round | Ponyo (2008) – defeated My Neighbors the Yamadas last round |
| Directed by: Hiroyuki Morita | Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki |
| Summary: After helping a cat, a young girl finds herself involuntarily engaged to a cat prince in a magical world where her only hope of freedom lies with a dapper cat statuette come to life. | Summary: An adventure of a 5-year-old boy and his relationship with a goldfish princess who longs to become human. |
|
Scenes to watch for: – Parade of the cats – The court/dinner scene |
Scenes to watch for: – Sosuke and Ponyo traveling on the toy boat – Ponyo becoming human and every underwater scene |
| IMDb score: 7.2/10 G-S-T score: 3.25/4.0 | IMDb score: 7.8/10 G-S-T score: 3.5/4.0 |
[poll id=”17″]
————————————————————————————————————————————
| Whisper of the Heart (1995) – defeated Kiki’s Delivery Service last round | Grave of the Fireflies (1988) – defeated Howl’s Moving Castle last round |
| Directed by: Yoshifumi Kondou | Directed by: Isao Takahata |
| Summary: Shizuku Tsukishima,who has a passion for reading and hopes of becoming a writer, discovers that all the books she checks out of the library have been borrowed before by someone called Seiji Amasawa. Shizuku sets out to meet the person who shares her literary taste. | Summary: A tragic film covering a young boy and his little sister’s struggle to survive in Japan during World War II. After bombings ravage their country the two set on their own making the best of poverty conditions in this heartbreaking tale. |
|
Scenes to watch for: – Backstory on the grandfather clock/Seiji playing “Country Road” with the band – Pretty much every walking or travelling scene |
Scenes to watch for: – Seita giving the last of the fruit drops to Setsuko – Lighting the cave with fireflies |
| IMDb score: 8.0/10 G-S-T score: 3.75/4.0 | IMDb score: 8.3/10 G-S-T score: 3.0/4.0 |
[poll id=”16″]
————————————————————————————————————————————
Vote for your favorites, feel free to drop a comment and remember to come back and check the results all this week. Next bracket goes up on March 21st!!
Go,See,Talk is participating in the “Japanese Cinema Blogathon”. Started by Japan Cinema and partnered with CinemaFanatic (winner of TotalFILM’s best fan blog of 2010) they are proud to host a week long Blogathon to aid relief efforts in Japan during the unfortunate Tsunami and Earthquake disaster. On March 11th, 2011, Japan was hit by the most powerful earthquake in at least 100 years at 8.9 magnitude, the fifth largest in history. 100% of profits from this Blogathon will go to support various charities (of your choosing) for earthquake and disaster relief efforts in Japan.
If you’d like to join me in blogging to raise money for Japan, just grab a banner and link your post on the roundup!
7 Comments
Aiden R.
Damn, dude. This is getting tough.
Novroz
Auch…Princess mononoke with spirited away? 🙁 so tough!
MarcC
@Aiden…sorry, I never said it was going to be easy. But if this were a Dreamworks Madness, it would be pretty predictable;D
@Novroz…I feel for you, I really do. But nothing like the mass of challenging decisions I’ve made on Flickchart. Now those are tough choices…Oy!
Castor
Holy Molly! Spirited Away vs Princess Mononoke that early? That’s harsh bro 🙂
MarcC
Well if more people voted for Nausicaa then we wouldn’t be at this quandary now would we?:P
Carl
Hey thanks for the comment on my site! I really like this idea, but unfortunately I can’t vote for the last two matchups as I haven’t seen any of the films, something I need to remedy.
Spirited Away is my favorite Miyazaki film that I’ve seen thus far, so I’ll be rooting for it big time.
MarcC
Well two votes is better than none, especially since we’re pretty close on 2 of them. You may have swayed the tide Carl:) For that you get my thanks and a huzzah! Thanks for stopping by and welcome to G-S-T!!